The term gemillat ḥasadim is usually taken to mean, in Jewish life, a free loan. I think it has a deeper meaning. There are two kinds of ḥesed: one is the ordinary and immature kind, and the other is a more mature sort. The first type of ḥesed is where the one who does the favor secretly or unconsciously expects some kind of compensation, for he thinks to himself, “Maybe someday I will need this man’s favor, and therefore it is worth my time doing something for him now.” It is basically utilitarian – a form of trade or barter. The higher kind is motivated not by a sense of trade, but by genuine human kindness. It is a mature sort of ḥesed. Hence, the term gemillat – not from the word gamol, “to pay,” but from the word lehigamel, “to be weaned,” as in beyom higamel Yitzḥak. When a man is weaned from childishness of character, when he grows up spiritually, he learns how to do a ḥesed for its own sake. This is the type of ḥesed that you of the ḥevra kadisha do for those who have passed on to their eternal reward.

One of the things mentioned by the Mishnah, in addition to the first ten items that were created erev Shabbat bein hashmashot, is the burial place of Moses – קבורתו של משה. What a strange thought! What the Tanna is trying to teach us, I believe, is how to stabilize our views and our assessments of our fellow men. He is trying to help us avoid succumbing to the danger of extremes in our evaluation of others, especially after they have died. Consider the extraordinary case of Moses. An unbiased reading of the Torah leads us to the startling conclusion that he was probably one of the most unpopular leaders in the history of mankind. His people were afraid of him and had little love for him. He literally had to force them out of slavery and into freedom. No matter what untoward event occurred, they blamed him. Jewish tradition even maintains that they accused him of some of the vilest crimes in the annals of mankind – not excluding adultery. He had to defend himself explicitly against implied charges of graft, bribery, and theft. This holiest of all men, this chief of all prophets, was treated with utter contempt and apparently without a shred of acknowledgement or appreciation of his unparalleled greatness. He was resented, disliked, hated. Yet as soon as he died, the Israelites experienced a sudden and radical change of heart. We are told that God Himself buried Moses and did not allow his burial place to be known – ויקבור אותו בגי... ולא ידע איש את קבורתו. Why so? Because, our Sages tell us, God was afraid that the sudden wave of admiration for Moses by the people would have evil consequences – the adulation might lead to idolatry and worship. God did not want Moses, the great teacher of monotheism and the great enemy of idolatry, to become himself an object of worship. So the feelings of the Israelites for Moses ran from one extreme to the other – from hatred to worship, from contempt to idolization. Before he died, they wished he would; after he died, they were di…

The perek records the story of Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma, who was accosted by a stranger who asked him, מאיזו עיר אתה? Rabbi Yosi replied, etc., etc. What we have before us is an assertion by Rabbi Yosi that it is better to live among sages than among ignoramuses – among wise men than among fools. Rabbi Yosi disdains all material rewards that might entice him to a spiritually and scholarly less favorable environment. This is, apparently, an unexceptionable teaching. Yet the matter is not quite that simple. Is it really the best policy to pursue in order to assure the dominance of Torah in Israel? If all committed Jews decided to live exclusively in Jewish areas, where kashrut and Torah and tefillah were all assured at the highest level, would this not result in the decimation of our community and in the loss of countless thousands of Jews in the outlying communities? Furthermore, do we not have sufficient examples of great Jews who, by risking an alien environment, succeeded in converting that milieu into great centers of Torah? For instance, we know that Rav left Palestine to go down to Babylon – and almost singlehandedly made that community into a center of Torah for hundreds and hundreds of years to follow. Does Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma then mean to imply that this was wrong? Does he have any alternative solution for the spreading of Torah in Israel? I believe that Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma was not preaching a kind of contemporary retrenchment policy whereby all Orthodox Jews withdraw into one neighborhood and abandon the rest of the community. The stranger who accosted him did not ask, “Where do you live?” He asked him, מאיזו עיר אתה – “From what place are you?” And therein lies the difference. Philo maintained that the pious man is a stranger on earth, for he is intrinsically a citizen of Heaven who is only temporarily here. His real makom is in Heaven. That is, I believe, the meaning of this dialogue between the Tanna and the stranger. What, asked the stranger, is your rea…

I know of no better way to express our collective gratitude at reaching the venerable age of 100, or my individual thanksgiving for ten years in office, than by reciting with you the traditional blessing, “She’hecheyanu ve’kiymanu ve’higianu la-zeman ha-zeh.” Blessed is God who has granted us life, let us exist, and enabled us to reach this season. The three critical verbs in this ancient blessing form a meaningful framework for our most cherished sentiments this day. Let us look at them, one by one, in reverse order. Ve’higianu: “He has enabled us to reach this day.” There were several years during this past decade when we never thought we would reach this day, when our future was in doubt. There were those who counseled us to close our doors and go out of business. Others advised us to declare insolvency even though we would live under a cloud forever after. But those of stouter hearts and greater vision and courage prevailed – and we persevered and fought and labored with unfaltering spirit as virtually every member of our boards rallied around our magnificent lay leadership. And so – we have “reached this day” – with dignity and honor. In thanking the Almighty, I thank too the instruments of His salvation: the distinguished leaders of our boards whose names I refrain from mentioning both out of respect for their humility and out of fear of inadvertently omitting other worthies; our many friends who gave sacrificially of both their time and their substance; my colleagues, whose loyalty and hard work bordered on the unbelievable; all of you who are with us to celebrate and who so richly deserve to join us in our joy because you were with us in our times of woe and worry. Ve’kiymanu. God let us exist to this day. This verb has always bothered me. Surely, if she’hecheyanu and ve’higianu – if He granted us life and enabled us to reach this day – then certainly He granted us existence! I am reminded of the Woody Allen character who wrote a scholarly paper, entitled, …